Doug Knight retiring as president of St. Joseph Media

The publishing company behind Toronto Life magazine is looking for new leadership after Doug Knight announced his intention Monday morning to retire as president of St. Joseph Media.

Knight, a 40-year industry veteran who has been with the company since 2006, will leave on July 4. St. Joseph Media, a division of St. Joseph Communications, publishes Toronto Life, Fashion Magazine, Wedding Bells, Where Magazine and a number of other properties, including Torontoist.

"Doug Knight is an innovator and a leader," said Tony Gagliano, the executive chairman and CEO of St. Joseph Communications, in a statement. "We are grateful for the ten years Doug led our media team and wish him the very best as he charts his next chapter."

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Knight said in a statement that he was leaving the company "to retire from the management trenches, to carve out some time to think about where and how I might devote my energies for the next ten years." He added: "It has also been a privilege and a delight since returning to Canada in 2006 to have spent time in every province and territory of the country."

Knight began his career with a brief stint at CBC in 1975, while still at the University of Toronto, and moved to the Financial Post in 1977. He served as that paper's publisher and CEO from 1992 to 1997, helping to orchestrate a leveraged buyout in 1996 of its parent company, Toronto Sun Publishing Corp., from Rogers Communications Inc. He was publisher and CEO of the Toronto Sun from 1997 to 2000, before moving to New York and heading up a media acquisition consultancy that oversaw the purchase of a number of major metropolitan Spanish-language dailies, including New York's El Diario.

Knight is chair of the industry body Magazines Canada and was instrumental in the recent creation of the Canadian Magazine Awards/Grands prix du magazine. The new collection of honours debuted this year in hopes of replacing the National Magazine Awards, which some publishers regard as bloated and outdated. Toronto Life won two of the new awards.

The magazine also picked up six NMAs last month, after individual writers submitted their work for consideration in that derby.